The present invention relates generally to bobbin winding machines and, more particularly, to apparatus for conveying cops mounted upstanding on carriers such as caddies or peg trays to multiple winding heads of a bobbin winding machine.
Automatic bobbin winders having cop transport systems in which peg trays or other carriers mounted with cops are circulated have long been known, e.g., as disclosed in Japanese Patent Document JP-AS 49-12128. The cops remain mounted on the peg trays during the unwinding operation and also during transport away from the winding head as an empty tube. This Japanese publication also teaches a conveyor belt guided along the bobbin winding machine for the purpose of delivering the peg trays to all winding heads. The delivery of the caddies to the storage stretches of the winding heads takes place by means of controllable loading devices. The peg trays are delivered to the conveyor belt only as needed.
German Published Patent Application DE-OS 33 08 172 also teaches a bobbin winding machine which exhibits the essential features of the bobbin winding machine already described. However, no separately controllable loading devices are present but rather fixed guide plates deflect all individual carriers arriving on the cop carrier conveyor belt in the direction of the storage stretches associated with the winding heads of the machine. These guide plates, in conjunction with the shaping of delivery stretches extending to the winding heads, permit a deflection of caddies or peg trays only in one direction of travel along the cop carrier conveyor belt, which forms a distributing stretch along the bobbin winding machine. For this reason, in view of the fact that caddies or peg trays are regularly delivered to the conveyor belt, not merely when there is a particular determined requirement of the winding heads, care must be taken that peg trays or caddies arriving at the end of the conveyor belt and not received by the delivery stretches to the winding heads do not accumulate or back up, which could ultimately result in a blocking of the entire delivery of cops to the winding heads. To this end, an additional return track parallel to the distributing stretch formed by the cop carrier conveyor belt is provided for returning the excess caddies or peg trays to the entrance of the carrier conveyor belt.
An undersupplying of cops to the winding heads located at one end of the distributing stretch of the conveyor can occur, especially if short rewinding times of the cops necessitate a frequent cop replacement. Cops arriving at the entrance end of this distributing stretch are therefore taken up relatively rapidly by the closer winding heads, so that fewer or no caddies or peg trays arrive at the more distant winding heads. This also results from the fact that the specific track guide imposes limits on the transport speed of the caddies or peg trays on the distributing stretch.